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7
However, they are more likely to report not utilising health services
when they are needed. The proportion of CAM users who report they
needed to see a GP but didn't go was 15.7% compared to 10.8% for
non-CAM users. The proportion of CAM users who didn't pick up a
prescription was 23.3% compared to 15.1% for non-CAM users.
As previously noted, CAM users have poorer health status, and their
medical conditions tend to be hard to treat. Their use of CAM services
may indicate that mainstream medical treatments have not improved
their health, however, they have a higher utilisation of many mainstream
health services than non-CAM users.
Research suggests that the majority of medical symptoms are self-diag-
nosed (not always accurately) and self-treated (not always effectively), so
a significant portion of CAM use falls into the realm of self-care. People
want to be involved in their own healthcare, and the growing use of CAMs
and the search for health information (particularly using online sources)
reflects this. CAM users appear to be actively trying to maintain their
health by being more likely to eat the recommended daily intake of fruit
and vegetables and more likely to exercise and exercise more often. They
are less likely to abstain from alcohol and more likely to drink non-haz-
ardous levels of alcohol. Given that CAM users tend to be middle-aged,
drinking moderate quantities of alcohol could be seen as a healthy choice
to reduce the risk of heart disease.6
As doctors, we need to understand why our patients turn to CAMs, if
we want to be effective in supporting them to make informed, safe and
appropriate choices about their health. It is also important to note that
the boundary between CAMs and conventional medicine can be fluid,
changing with societal attitudes and beliefs.7 We might like them, we
might be distrustful of them, but we need to acknowledge that—whatever
we might think of them—our patients use CAMs, and understanding why
helps us to help them.
References
1. Xue, Charlie et al, Complementary and Alternative Medicine Use
in Australia: a National Population-based Survey, The Journal of
Alternative and Complementary Medicine,2007,13(^):pp643-50
2. Barnes P. National Health Statistics Report 2008 (12) December 10
3. Fox, S, The Social Life of Health Information, Pew Internat and
American Life Project
4. Verhoef, M et al. Assessing the Role of Evidence in Patients’
Evaluation of Complementary Therapies, Integrative Cancer
Therapies 6(4) 2007, pp345-353
5. Astin, J, Why Patients use Alternative Medicine, JAMA,May 20, 1998
(Vol 279), No. 19
6. Pledger MJ, Cumming JN, Burnette M. Health service use amongst
users of complementary and alternative medicine. N Z Med J. 2010
Apr 9;123(1312):26-35
7. Poynton,L et al, General Practitioners’ attitudes toward (and use of)
complementary and alternative medicine, NZMJ, (119), No 1247
FROM THE CHAIR